There Can Be Only One
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: Richard Castle has one final secret to reveal to Kate Beckett. This was not the way he wanted it though. For the record: this is just a quick diversion. (I am really too much of a history nut) I was listening to "Princes of the Universe" and "Who Wants To Live Forever" by Queen and this kinda popped into my head.
1. The Quickening

Chapter One

The Quickening

Kate and Rick were searching an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront for their suspect in a series of murders. They had chased him inside when he had fired at them with a large caliber handgun and fled when they had tried to bring him in. Kate quietly handed him her backup piece. She would rather he didn't come at all as they didn't have their vests on, but she knew he wouldn't stay behind if she was in danger, so it was the only gesture she could make as they cautiously entered the warehouse.

"Dr Harrison! It's over! Why don't you just come out and make this easier on yourself?"

Kate's shouted request for him to surrender didn't meet with an immediate answer as they carefully picked their way through the darkened warehouse lit only by the sunlight streaming through the broken windows.

Suddenly he was right there in front of them, leveling his gun at Kate's chest and she froze for just an instant, her subconscious dragging her back to the day she was shot a year ago. Rick shoved her aside, as he and the deranged man exchanged shots at nearly the same time. Castle's shot had hit the mark, penetrating Harrison's left eye, he was dead before he hit the floor.

"Nice shooting Castle!" Kate said, but there was no answer. As she swung her head from Harrison's body she saw Rick drop to his knees, a blank look on his face, and an expanding dark purple stain on his light blue shirt, dead center on his chest.

"Castle!" Kate screamed as she ran to where he dropped fully onto the concrete floor, as she pulled out her radio, barely able to choke out the words through her own sobs...

"One Lincoln forty One Lincoln forty! Officer needs assistance...sh...shots fired...officer down!"

She gave the street address while vainly trying to staunch the blood flow to a wound she knew in her heart was mortal.

"Rick...no...I love you, I love you...please dear God...no..."

As she felt his heart stop, she pulled his head into her lap and completely lost control, her eyes welled with tears which fell in uncontrollable waves as she rocked back and forth cradling his head, pressing kisses onto his paling lips, sobbing over her fallen love.

In her tearful, heartbroken state, she did not witness the effects of the quickening. She didn't see the wound in his chest close, did not register his heart begin to beat again, nor the flash of energy wash behind his eyes. Only when Rick sucked in a gasping breath and fully sat up was Kate shaken from her reverie, to suddenly be awash in terror as Richard Castle, whom she had just seen die in her arms, was suddenly, once again alive. She jumped to her feet and backed away, her mind unable to process what she was seeing, her breathing coming in shallow ragged gasps. She did the only thing a sane person who had been dealt this type of shock could do.

She moaned softly and fainted dead away, collapsing bonelessly to the warehouse floor.

….

One hour later

It had taken Richard Castle a bit of fast talking to explain that he was indeed all right after the cavalry showed up. He had zipped up his leather jacket to hide the rather large blood stain on his shirt and had done his best to make Kate comfortable until she could be checked by EMS. She was conscious but mumbling incoherently about having seen him die. Though the paramedic had wanted to take her in for a psych consult, Castle told him that she was fine, just that the shooting had brought on a PTSD flashback.

When they finally let him go, the paramedics released Kate into his care, and departed as she was in otherwise perfect health. After giving his report to IAB who cleared it as a clean shoot he told Ryan and Espo that he would take Kate home and make sure she got some rest.

Lanie put him on notice that she would be coming out to check on her in the morning, once she was done with the autopsy of their killer. Castle nodded, then slid Kate's keys out of her jacket pocket as she passed him in a slight daze. He guided her to the passenger seat of her police cruiser and belted her in. He knew that he would be having a very uncomfortable conversation with her once she had gotten some sleep and processed what she had seen that afternoon. One he hadn't had in a very long time. As he looked over at Kate, nearly asleep in the passenger seat as he pulled into her space at her apartment building, his mind raced back to a much earlier time...

….

9 AD

Kalkriese, Germania

Just before dawn

_Publius Quinctilious Varus had led them into a deathtrap in the Teutoburg forest. The 17th and 18th legions were gone, and only a small fraction of the 19th legion remained. Their annihilation was almost total, and very soon would be. Nearly all of the higher ranking officers were dead either by their own hands or those of the Germanic barbarians. Something _Praefectus Marcus Gaius Eggius_ knew quite well. He had held the sword for General Varus to fall upon personally. Those like the coward Numonius Vala who had abandoned his men and tried to flee were simply cut down as they fled._

_He could see the barbarians massing at the edge of the forest, preparing to assault the meager fortifications his men had hastily constructed during the night. He knew that when dawn came, they would press their attack. He knew that he and his men, the last and best of Legio XIX would be making their last stand this day. Surrender was not an option. Slavery, death, or worse awaited them at the hands of the Germanic heathen that way. He had given the order to bury their legion standard and eagle to keep it from the hands of the enemy. The heathen might take their lives, but not the honor of their legion._

_They would stand and die _here_ for the glory and honor of the Roman Empire. He walked amongst the men of his cohort, giving each man at least a few moments of his time. The cowards and shirkers were all gone now. They would all be in the hands of the gods soon. Better to die this way, standing up like men._

_Here in this place they would make their final stand, together. He could think of no finer men to make this last stand with him._

…_._

Kate Beckett's apartment.  
Present Day

Kate Beckett woke in her own bed, fully clothed with the exception of her coat shoes badge and gun. The events of that afternoon seemed a thousand miles away, as if part of a macabre dream from one of Rick's favorite zombie movies. She hadn't received a shock like that since the zombie walking case this past May.

It took her a moment, before she realized that she wasn't alone. Rick was sitting next to her bed with a paper to-go cup, which he held out to her as she sat up. As she tasted her favorite skim late with two pumps of sugar free vanilla, her brain flashed back to earlier in the day.

"Please tell me that was just a dream, Castle." she pleaded, her mind still seeing his head cradled in her lap, his lifeless empty eyes staring up at her.

"I'm afraid not, Kate." Rick replied softly, as he saw her eyes widen "I had hoped this could wait for a better time, when our relationship was more solid, but I have one last secret to reveal."

Rick put out his hand, Kate took it and he led her out to her living room couch. He sat her down on it and got down on his knees before he looked her in the eyes.

"My name is Marcus Gaius Eggius, Praefectus of the 10th cohort of 19th legion of the Roman Imperial Army."

What blurted out of Kate's mouth was not what he expected.

"But there hasn't been a 19th Roman Legion since..."

"That's correct Kate, not since it was wiped out to a man along with the 17th and 18th Legions in the Teutoburg forest in 9 AD." Rick interrupted. "I was there."

"But...but...but...that's not possible...it can't be...that isn't..."

Rick rose to his feet and took two steps back, producing a slender dagger from out of his coat pocket before dropping the coat to the floor and plunging the dagger into his chest.

Kate shrieked his name and leaped for him as he pulled the blade from his chest and dropped to his knees. As her eyes filled with tears again, this time she saw the bleeding stop and the wound close up with her own eyes. Saw him painfully take in a gasp of air.

"Kate," Rick groaned, the pain of what he had just done creeping into his voice. He may be immortal, but this still hurt like hell! "I was born two thousand years ago and I cannot die."


	2. Gates

**Chapter Two**

**Gates**

_**Kalkrise, Germania: 9 AD**_

_It had taken Marcus Gaius Eggius nearly two hours to climb up from the bottom of the ravine where he had fallen when the barbarian had struck him and kicked him over the side. He knew that he should not be alive. God must have spared him for some higher purpose, else his broken corpse would have been decorating the bottom of that ravine for all eternity. When he reached site of Legio XIX's last stand he found a charnal house. His men's bodies had been desecrated, mutilated where they fell. Their weapons were gone, as was most of their armor. He had been correct to hide their Eagle and standard._

_His men were soldiers of Rome. They had given their last full measure to the Roman State and their honorable, noble sacrifice had deserved better than this sacrilege. He fell to his knees and wept, trying to find the strength to do what was necessary. For the strength to honor his men properly, and cursing the name of the traitor Arminius. He then set about preparing his men for the afterlife._

_He gathered as many of them as he could find and dragged them together. He had managed to find enough pine tar to ignite the mostly wet wood of the funeral pyre he had constructed beneath them. He would have to get well away from here after he lit it, as it would be visible for miles._

_He gathered together what meager provisions he could locate and salvage from their supplies and lit the pyre. The pine tar surged to to life, quickly drying the wood of the pyre and their shattered defenses before those too burst into flames. He had covered ten miles before dark, and could still see the blaze._

_He marched through the night and well into the following day, passing the two shattered garrisons leading back to the Rhine. He stopped at both to scavenge what supplies he could, but did not linger at either for long. He felt duty bound to report back to Rome and pay homage to his fallen men. Tell the scribes how bravely they met their end. _

_He stopped only out of absolute exhaustion. After setting a meager camp, he prepared a small meal from the pack he carried. As he ate, he suddenly felt an odd sensation, like a tingling up and down his spine, a pulse of fire in his blood which raised the hairs on the back of his neck and set all of his senses on edge. He rose quickly and drew his gladius from its scabbard, scanning the trees, when a slender, dark haired man with an oddly shaped sword stepped out of the shadows._

"_Good instincts." the man said, "What you are feeling is called _the Quickening."

"_Who are you?" Eggius demanded, "What manner of sorcery is this?"_

"_You may not know it yet, Legionnaire, but we are brothers of a sort," the man replied, "my name is Methos, come with me, brother, you have much to learn."_

12th Precinct  
Captain Gates' Office

Present Day

Rick Castle and Kate Beckett were standing side by side in front of Captain Gates' desk, and she was in rare form for Kate errantly calling in officer down over what amounted to a flesh wound, while noting, not for the first time that Richard Castle was not a cop.

Rick could tell that Kate was still not quite herself after their ordeal in the warehouse, and in her living room the night before. She wasn't the first woman he had been with over the last two thousand years that he trusted this secret to. Neither of them had taken it much better at first. Kate was the first woman he had known in the past hundred years he had thought safe telling his deepest secret to though. He had even kept it from his adopted daughter, Alexis, her mother Meredith (both of whom still believe Alexis was truly his, though immortals are incapable of conception) and his second wife, Gina. Though with _the Gathering_ fully at hand and only two immortals left, Kate just might end up being the last.

The mystical nature of The Quickening had been much easier for people he explained it to to swallow once upon a time, even as late as two hundred years ago. People had been more willing to believe in magic. Though that had served him both for good and for ill. He had been tortured by the Spanish Inquisition, and burned at the stake some years later in Germany. He had even been hung during the Salem Witch Trials as well. There certainly was something to be said for modern skepticism.

He ceased his musings as Gates ordered Kate to take two weeks paid medical leave. Though at least it wasn't another suspension, she effectively banned Kate from the precinct. Obviously his ruse of a PTSD panic attack had found its way into the record, as well as her emotional fugue state when the paramedic had examined her. He felt a wave of remorse, because he knew that this was his fault. Watching him die had run her through the wringer, but witnessing his resurrection immediately afterward had really done a number on her. Using her fragile condition at the time to cover his lie made him feel incredibly guilty.

As Victoria Gates brought her right hand up to adjust her glasses, Rick caught sight of the tattoo on the inside of her wrist. The design was both unique and also glaringly familiar. _"So, Gates is my watcher."_ he thought to himself. Though her order had managed to keep their existence a secret for nearly three millenia, they had been discovered and exposed nearly fifteen years ago by the Highlander, Duncan McLeod. Knowledge of them had spread like wildfire among the remaining immortals at the time.

Since then, they were an open secret. Renegade elements of their ranks had at one time or another either tried to destroy all of the immortals, or influence which one took the prize, but for the most part the order as a whole managed to maintain its neutrality.

When Gates dismissed them, he herded Kate out of her office and asked her to wait for him near the elevator. When she complied, oddly without any more argument than an arched eyebrow, he turned on his heel and returned to Gates' office. Without preamble, he closed the door and dropped the blinds.

"I thought I dismissed the two of you, _Mr. Castle_." Gates said imperiously.

"Captain, I believe we can both cut the crap here. I saw your _Watcher_ tattoo, so I am well aware that you know exactly who and what I _really_ am. I am also now well aware who you are and whom _you_ really represent."

"I see." Gates replied, and much of the _holier than thou_ disappeared from her tone.

Victoria Gates was well aware that her organization was no longer a secret. At least not among _their_ kind, but old habits died hard. She had hoped to remain unnoticed.

"Cleaning up after _your _kind's messes never seems to end." she said with obvious conviction.

She was one of the rare watchers who rigidly stuck to the Watcher's code of non interference and remained arms length from the immortal she was assigned. She took the responsibility of chronicling their history seriously. As long as they stuck to killing each other, she was content to watch and do nothing. Otherwise she had a high caliber pistol on her belt and a machete in her trunk. Thus far it had never been necessary to test the resolve of her conscience with the immortal in front of her. Secretly she was in awe of him and what he has accomplished over the two millenia of his immortality.

"Does she know?"

"Yes," Castle replied, "I told her last night. Not much choice really, she saw me die in that warehouse, then saw me get back up again. Oh, and the assassin who shot Kate, then tried to kill her on that roof isn't dead, Cole Maddox is immortal. You may have one last thing to add to my chronicle before long."

"I won't help you." Gates stated matter of factly.

"I'm not _asking_ for your help, Gates, just stay out of my way, and maybe cut Beckett some slack, she's had a rough week."

Before he turned to open the door, he opened the messenger bag he had slung over his shoulder, produced two gift bags from it and set them on her desk as a peace offering. When Gates opened them, her eyes went wide and her breath caught in her throat when she saw the Gemini dolls. They were likely two of the ugliest porcelain figurines he had laid eyes on in the last five hundred years, but obviously Victoria Gates liked that sort of thing.

"I believe I owe you these to replace the two I broke a few weeks ago."

"Where did you..." she began to say, her eyes lit up with wonder, but Castle cut her off.

"Immortal, remember? I knew the guy that made em."

"But...why?" she asked.

"Just cut Beckett and her team some slack and stay out of my way when the time comes and you and I will get along just fine."

He knew when he left that "Iron Gates" would not be causing him any more grief. Her order had had to become more careful now that their secret was out. (at least among the immortals) Some had targeted them for elimination. He had it on good authority that Maddox had done just that at least once. Some had formed friendships with them in a vain effort to gain some sort of advantage in the age old game. Most, however could have cared less, as long as they followed their stated code of non-interference. It mattered little, as the gathering was nearly at an end. There were only two immortals left.

There can be only one.


	3. Eyes On The Prize

**Chapter Three  
****Eyes on the Prize**

Cole Maddox knew that the world now considered him to be dead. It certainly wasn't the first time. His former employer had mysteriously backed off from Detective Beckett. Something had spooked him, sent him scurrying back into the shadows, a sure sign that he was unworthy of any true respect.

_'How very _Athenian_ of him.'_ he scoffed to himself.

He cared little about whether the woman lived or died now, or weather he killed her or not. Her contract had been a job, nothing more. Since there was no longer a contract, she was no longer worthy of his time. He was a warrior for hire, a sell-sword as it were. Had been for centuries. He had been trained since birth to serve, fight, and die for the Spartan State. Only the Sparta he had known and served was no more. It had fallen into dust millenia ago, just like every civilization before or since.

He now lived to seek the prize.

He had been one of the few pure warriors in the game. The gathering was at hand and only two remained, himself and the Roman. Fitting that that the contest came down to two professional soldiers from two of the greatest civilizations in recorded history. It would be a battle for the ages, a contest of titans.

As he slid the whetstone along the blade of his Xiphos he contemplated the battle to come. After he killed the Roman, took his woman, (and oh, how he would enjoy bending Kate Beckett to his will) and the girl whom he pretended was his daughter, he envisioned a renewed Spartan State. He would rule all. To the victor would go the spoils.

First he wanted a chance to meet him. Size him up. Though his Spartan training had emphasized stealth cunning and deceit, his desire for battle won out. He wanted the Legionnaire to know what he was facing wanted to look him in the eye and tell him what he would do after he took his head. He sent him a text message to meet him on holy ground.

* * *

_**Legionnaire  
**__**St. Patrick's Cathedral 8PM  
**__**Maddox**_

After he had received the text message from Maddox, Rick had a decision to make. He would need to meet the man, face him. He knew what was in his official NYPD file, had seen him up close once, and knew he'd beaten the hell out of Kate the last time she had tangled with him, but little else. The man had been better than most of the immortals at covering his tracks. As a Spartan, sneaking around unnoticed was in his blood. His watcher was likely dead or very good at hiding himself. Even if Gates was of a mind to help him, there was likely little she could offer.

As he entered the cathedral, he walked up to the altar, kneeling and crossing himself as a good Catholic should, and lit three candles. One for his men, who's memory he carried with him to this day, another for Johanna Beckett, and the last for his own mother on her birthday, whispering a silent prayer for all of their souls.

He had been born a slave, his mother an early convert at the very dawn of the Christian faith that one day grew into the Roman Catholic Church. She had raised him since birth to be a follower of Jesus Christ back when it was a minor cult generally only amongst some Jews and a few small bands of scattered converts amongst the lowest strata of Roman society. A faith he had been admonished to keep to himself since as early as he could remember. He had no idea who his father was, most likely their master given his carnal appetites.

His master had given him over to the Roman Army in place of his son, whom he considered to be an embarrassment to his family name. In the 19th Legion, he had earned both his freedom and a place in Roman society as a citizen of the empire. He only wished his mother could see him now.

His reverie was broken by the now familiar sensation of the quickening.

Cole Maddox had arrived.

* * *

Kate Beckett awoke in her bed, Castle's death still replaying itself over and over in her dreams. It was unusual for her to sleep an entire day away, but the events of the previous day had taken more out of her than she thought. Witnessing Castle's death had been a painful, visceral experience. She now knew what he had felt like on that day in the cemetery last year, what it had felt like to whisper "I love you" to someone you believed was going to die, what it was like to watch the lights go out of the eyes of a person she loved dearly. Understood his pain in a way she hadn't before.

In spite of that, his resurrection several minutes later had shaken her to her core. Immortality seemed like both a gift and a curse to her now. Yes she had gotten him back, gotten another chance to get things right with him, but how many times had he loved someone, only to helplessly watch them grow old and die?

He would likely outlive Alexis, her children and her grandchildren by centuries. A bittersweet, lonely existence and even if she lived to old age, she would not live long enough to share even a fraction of it with him. When he said "always" he sadly meant it..._literally_. The utter loneliness of his existence reduced her to tears, as she wept bitterly for the man she loved.

* * *

"So, we are the last two," Maddox said in a voice that chilled Castle's blood, I had hoped it would come down to you and me. A battle of pure warriors, not the pathetic weaklings who simply won the genetic lottery."

Maddox was an uncompromising passionless, remorseless killer. A perfect specimen of the Spartan military machine. He dared not show any weakness, dared not make a single mistake in the battle to come. He could not allow one such as him to claim the prize. Humanity would suffer an age of darkness the likes of which had not been seen in millenia.

"After I have taken your head and claimed the prize, I will give your regards to the lovely Detective Beckett. She will beg me to let her die before I am done with her, and maybe I will grant her wish...after I am done with the pretty little redhead. Perhaps I will even make her watch."

"You son of a bitch!" Rick hissed...

Maddox chuckled maniacally as Rick fought for control, his hand instantly reaching behind him for the gladius strapped to his back, but Maddox pushed him away.

"Holy ground, Legionnaire, holy ground! You know the rules." he stated coldly, an air of reproach in his tone as if he were explaining to a child. I will see you in three days time, Central Park at midnight.

A moment later he was gone, having slipped into the crowd of parishioners seeking absolution and disappeared.

Richard Castle stood in the sea of people, breathing deeply, clenching his fists to get himself under control. He had three days to see to Kate and Alexis' safety before he met him in battle. Three days do get them out of his reach.

There could be only one, but if it wasn't him, he shuddered to think of what would happen to the people he loved if he failed.


	4. Who Dares To Love Forever?

**Chapter Four**  
**Who Dares to Love Forever?**

* * *

_There's no time for us,_  
_there's no place for us._  
_What is this thing that builds our dreams,_  
_yet slips away from us?_  
_Who wants to live forever?_  
_Who wants to live forever?_

_There's no chance for us_  
_It's all decided for us_  
_This world has only one sweet moment_

_set aside for us_  
_Who wants to live forever_  
_Who wants to live forever_

_Who dares to love forever_  
_when love must die_

Queen: Who Wants to Live Forever

* * *

**1500 AD**  
**_South of France_**

Marcus Gaius Eggius stood in front of a modest five foot by three foot slab of marble set into the ground in the center of a copse of trees. He had carved the marble from a nearby quarry himself, personally shaped the stone to make a marker, dragged it here over the course of a week. It had been centuries since he had worked marble, one of his duties as a slave, was to cut and shape it. It had been a useful talent in the Roman Army as well in the building of forts on the frontier.

This was different though. This was not a portion of a wall or floor for a villa or a fortress, this stone was to immortalize his beloved. A woman of unsurpassed beauty, keen wit, and fierce intellect. The latter two traits, unusual in a woman, of the time. Her name was Veronica, and he had loved her with all of his heart, the first time he had ever felt such fierce love and devotion in his entire life (which now stood at over 1,500 years)

_Hic iacet  
__Veronica  
__Dilectus uxor  
__Marcus Gaius Eggius  
__natus MCDXXXV  
__Obiit MD_

He had stayed by her side for fifty years, watching her slowly grow old until one day he woke and she was gone at the tender age of sixty five. Methos had warned him what it would mean to fall in love with a mortal woman. He had warned him of the heartache he would feel to see her grow old and die, without even the possibility of children to show for their union. He had managed to avoid such entanglements until he met her. He had been instantly smitten. Now he simply felt bereft and empty. His world that much smaller without her in it.

When they were married by the itinerant priest, they had vowed till death do they part, and they both kept that vow. Even after he had been excommunicated for being what he was, so had she when she refused to denounce or forsake him. After they had been driven from their home and had to start again elsewhere. Which was why she was laid to rest here, in this place they both loved, denied a burial on holy ground...because of him.

He loved her, he wasn't sure how he could possibly survive without her, and he had eternity left to find out if that were true. He was no longer going to find what he sought here, so he took up his meager possessions and chose instead to wander. Never to pass this spot or pause in this place again.

_Touch my tears with your lips,  
__Touch my world with your fingertips  
__And we can live forever.  
__And we can love forever.  
__Forever is our today.  
__Who waits forever anyway?_

* * *

**Present Day**

Kate Beckett lay sitting up in bed, her long legs curled up under her, still trying to make sense of the last few days, her feelings for a man whom she now knew to be immortal still raw and open in her like her chest had been flayed open. She was startled from her introspection by an insistent pounding on her door. When she dragged herself out of bed and opened it, Castle was on the other side.

His presence had barely fully registered in her mind as he pushed his way inside and slammed the door shut behind him. Before she could open her mouth to protest, he was halfway to her bedroom. She numbly followed along behind. He spoke in a hushed whisper as he pulled a duffel bag out of her closet.

"Pack a bag Beckett, only what you can carry."

"Castle...what the hell..."

"Remember when I asked you to look after Alexis if anything should happen to me?" He began, "well, now the time for you to keep that promise has arrived."

"Castle...what do you mean? "

"Maddox...he isn't dead...he's immortal, like me. I met with him tonight, and there isn't much time. I need to prepare to face him, but before I can do that I need to know that you and Alexis will be safe in case I fail."

"You have to face him?" Kate breathed, her heart consumed with terror at the thought, "Why do you have to face him? He nearly killed me on that rooftop!"

"Kate, love there is one other major wrinkle to the whole immortality thing. For over ten thousand years, nearly the entire span of human civilization, we have been compelled to seek out and fight each other until only one remains. Maddox and I are the very last and there can be _only one_. I cannot avoid this fight, cannot escape it. The call for it sings out to my very blood just as it does his."

"But why Rick? Why is this happening?" Kate pleaded, still trying to wrap her mind around what Castle was asking her to blindly accept.

"None of us really knows why, or even how all of this came to be, all we know is that we fight for the prize, whatever that is. I do know that if Maddox takes the prize, mankind will suffer an eternity of darkness, Kate and I am the only thing standing in his way."

"Let me help you, Castle...we're partners...I..." she began, but he put two fingers to her lips to silence her.

"Kate, I love you more than life itself, but, you can't be there, this isn't something you can help me with, I have to face him...alone, none may interfere. This is a battle I have trained my mind body and soul for, for nearly two thousand years. The best you can do for me is take Alexis and go, get her out of here...take her someplace safe. She is my gift to the future and I sense that she has a special destiny even I can only guess at. I only know that she came into my care and under my protection for a reason, and now I am entrusting her, the most precious thing in my life, to you."

"Castle..." Kate pleaded, tears falling unbidden down her cheeks, but he pressed his lips to hers to again quiet her, wiping her tears away with his thumbs, pulling back after a moment.

"Kate, there is no time, I wish there was, I've set up fake passports, false identities, everything you and Alexis will need to disappear. Some list you as mother and daughter a few as sisters. Also, account books and access codes for two Swiss bank accounts...enough money to take care of you both...for decades if necessary."

"Pick up Alexis at OCME but don't tell Lanie where you are going, the less she knows the safer she and all of our friends will be. I have you both booked first class on the set of identities in your bag to Heathrow in England, discard them as soon as you clear customs. There's a key to a locker at the airport with clothes to help you blend into the London scenery along with everything else you'll need. Don't tell me, or anyone else where you're going after that."

"Castle...Rick...I..."

"The paperwork for a three week leave of absence is already on file at 1PP, Kate. Stay on the move, wait two weeks from tomorrow, then look for me in Trafalgar square by Admiral Nelson's column at noon, London time. If I'm not there within one hour of noon, assume that I'm dead, take Alexis and disappear. Don't ever come back."

"Rick, how long have you been planning this?" Kate breathed.

"Since that day on the swings." He replied, touching his forehead to hers, "The two of you are far too important to me, not to see you protected."

"What about Martha?" Kate asked.

"She has resources of her own. Her family were gypsies who fled to America to escape Nazi Germany. They know a thing or two about how to disappear. If Maddox goes after her, he will be chasing smoke. She's been preparing for this day since she let me take over the identity of the real Richard Rodgers, who died when he was five. She promised to lay a convincing trail of breadcrumbs for Maddox to follow with clones of your cell and Alexis' before she goes to ground."

After saying that, He picks up Kate's phone, pulls the battery and the sim card.

"There will be burner phones for you to set up when you get there, Kate. Use them sparingly and replace them often. Change Alexis' hair color, she's too conspicuous as a redhead, something closer to yours would be best if you are going to pass for relatives."

"Castle, I love you." Kate told him with tears in her eyes.

"I love you too, Kate, now go get dressed. Don't forget, Trafalgar square in two weeks. Pray to God I succeed, if I do, no power on earth or in heaven will keep me from your side."

An hour later, after putting the two people he loved the most on a plane bound for England, be began his preparations for the battle to come. He had done everything for them that he could. The rest was now in Kate's hands.

Heart, faith and steel were all he had left.

He opened the compartment behind his walk in closet to reveal his officer's cuirass and shield. If it was God's will that he fall in the battle to come, he would fall as he once lived.

As a soldier of Rome.


	5. The Last Stand

**Chapter Five  
****The Last Stand**

_Shaolin Temple  
__Henan Province, China  
__1646 AD_

_Marcus Gaius Eggius walked through the forms of the crane technique in the courtyard of the temple. When he finished, he seamlessly transitioned to tiger. Master Zhue Yuen and Masters Li Sou and Bai Yu Feng had taught him these techniques over the past seventy years. They were old men now, wizened and aging but still teaching their techniques, preparing a new generation of masters to carry on their teachings when they finally entered the void._

_He had been wandering for nearly sixty years after burying Veronica, when he had found his way here. He didn't know what Master Zhue had seen in him when he showed up at the temple gates. A bedraggled man in Roman armor from a bygone era. He had collapsed and "died" just outside the temple gate. When he rose again Master Zhue was standing over him._

_It had taken him most of the first five years to learn to speak and write in Chinese. To simply be able to understand the Masters so they could teach him. It was the first time he had been in a land whose language was not based in Latin. _

_All the while they had begun teaching him to move to walk to fight all over again. With weapons (bladed and otherwise) and his bare hands. To train all of his senses not just his sight and his hearing. Remade him into the living weapon he knew he needed to be to fight for the prize. Taught him to meditate, to clear his mind of all distraction. Including that of the woman he loved and the life they had had together. Everything that he was trying hard to forget._

_When he was finished, Master Zhue presented him with a straight sword and spoke to him,_

"_I have nothing more to teach you."_

_Marcus placed his right fist into his left palm and bowed, "Yes, Master Zhue."_

"_There are dark times coming for the monastery, my son." _

_'Then I will stay and help." Marcus replied, but Master Zhue shook his head._

"_Your destiny lies along a different path from ours, my son." _

* * *

Present Day  
Maddox's hotel room

"He has sent them into hiding," Maddox said out loud to himself, "so much the better."

He enjoyed a challenge. He hoped that Det. Beckett would not make it too easy for him when he went hunting for her and the girl. Tomorrow night he would finish this and the hunt would begin. The more she prolonged it, the more fun it would be, and the sweeter the spoils when he finally cornered them.

He had always enjoyed the hunt. It was always so much more fun when the prey fought back.

The time was coming. He could feel it in his bones.

* * *

Castle Loft

Richard Castle had cleared the furniture from the living room and began walking the forms, both unarmed and with the straight sword Master Zhue had given him. It had served him well for 367 years. He had spent much of the day meditating. He had been physically and mentally preparing himself since he had come back from seeing Kate and Alexis off at the airport.

He had done what he could for Kate, Alexis, and Martha. It would be up to Gates to look after the others. He must clear his mind of all distraction, every other worry if he is to focus on the battle to come. The world will never know how much is riding on what is to come.

As Martha Rodgers descended the stairs with her bolt bag, he slipped an envelope containing a significant amount of money into it.

"Are you sure about this, Richard?" She asked.

He had given this some serious thought while he meditated. He had spent fifty years watching Veronica grow old and die, he wasn't sure he could bear to live through that again. He felt that Kate deserved more. More than being tied to a man who would never age, while she grew old and died in front of him. Nor could he bear to see the same thing with Alexis. He loved them both with all of his heart.

Enough to set them both free.

"Martha, regardless of the outcome, Richard Castle dies tonight."

She turned her head sadly, and walked from the apartment. She would do everything she could for Kate and Alexis. She had more than a few tricks of her own and would lead Maddox on a merry chase. If he caught her, so be it. She knew nothing about where they were going, not even where Richard had sent them, so the Spartan couldn't force her to give them up. She had lived a long full life, and was more than willing to trade what was left of it to keep the young ones safe for as long as she was able.

Her Richard may have died decades ago, but she loved the man who had taken his name almost as much as if she bore him herself.

* * *

10:00 PM  
Central Park

Lighting streaked across the sky as darkness claimed this section of Central Park. The leaked news of a joint sweep by the 12th Precinct's vice and organized crime units practically insure that the criminal elements that normally called central park home at this hour of the night sought less dangerous avenues to promote their illicit activities.

_'There certainly was something to be said for having a watcher who was a police captain to clear the way.' _Castle mused to himself. He hadn't even informed her that this was where he and Maddox had agreed to meet. She certainly had her sources. Though he guessed it didn't hurt that she had nearly the entire watcher organization to call upon seeing as how there were only two immortals left and very few of those were keen to see Maddox take the prize. He had killed more than one watcher assigned to him over the years, even before it was widely known what they were. Murder seemed to be that man's default setting when presented with an obstacle. Then again, the Spartan State had never been known for its negotiating skill.

He felt the flash up and down his spine the tingling in his whole body from the quickening. Maddox was here.

"Good evening, Mr. Castle. We meet again." Maddox said confidently, his Xiphos loosely gripped in his right hand.

"I am Marcus Gaius Eggius, Praefectus of the 10th Cohort of the 19th Legion." he said as he dropped his coat revealing the officer's cuirass.

"And I served King Leonidas at Thermopylae, what of it?" Maddox replied with a derisive snort.

"Just if you thought doing this in the woods was going to give you some sort of psychological edge, you can think again." Rick said in a commanding voice as he drew the slender Chinese straight sword from it's scabbard.

"There can be only one!" Maddox shouted before he attacked.

Battle had been joined.

Victoria Gates watched the fight from a nearby rock outcropping.

No one who knew her from the precinct would recognize her. She had her hair pulled back into a ponytail and was dressed in military style BDUs. She was watching the battle through a camcorder with a night vision lens.

It was hard to believe the same man who squealed like a little girl at rats and bugs, who could barely be counted upon to take anything seriously in the precinct. Who enraptured everyone in the homicide squad with this stories and theories was now down there in the clearing wielding a sword with practiced skill and grace.

She could barely keep up with the speed of their movements as they circled warily and struck at each other with their swords. Each seeking an opening to exploit. Sparks flew from their swords as lightning flashed in the sky as it threatened to rain.

When Maddox hooked Castle's leg and toppled him to the ground causing his sword to skitter across the pathway, she sucked in a deep breath, she had a moral dilemma on her hands...

Castle slowly pulled himself up to his knees, his sword ten feet away. He knew there was no hope of reaching it, nor of drawing his gladius strapped to his back before Maddox skewered him. It was over.

Maddox stood over him, his Xiphos poised for the strike as he spoke.

"I want you to know before you die, that will be hunting Beckett and the girl down, you have only prolonged the inevitable. I hope she doesn't make it too easy though. I so enjoy the chase."

He raised his sword over his head for the killing blow.

"There can be only..."

That was a far as he got, when an iron pipe struck him square between the shoulder blades.

He stumbled forward a step or two, then turned to fend off a second blow with his sword to reveal his assailant, Victoria Gates, a look of wild fury in her dark eyes.

"You will _not_ take the prize, you son of a bitch!"

She gripped the pipe for an upward swing for his chin, which he blocked easily with his blade, sending her arm out wide from her body, then followed up with fist to her sternum which took all of the wind from her sails and sent her sprawling. He swept her legs, dropping her to the ground, then turned to finish Castle.

He spun around just in time to be met by the point of a Roman gladius as Castle buried it to the hilt in his chest and bent the sword down sharply, snapping the bronze blade at the pommel guard. Maddox could feel his heart cutting itself to ribbons on the short, stabbing blade...the agony was exquisite.

Castle cast about for his sword only to see it sliding across the ground to him.

"What..." she paused as she coughed up blood "...are you...waiting for...Mr. Castle..._**finish him!**_" Gates gasped, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. She could barely breathe, she figured she had at least one if not two broken ribs.

He took his sword in both hands as Maddox presented his neck.

"With...your shield...or on it...Legionnaire." he gasped what would be his last words.

"There can be only one." Was Castle's only reply, as he swung his sword and cleaved Maddox's head from his neck in one swift stroke.

He stood there a moment, breathing heavily as Maddox's headless body slumped to the ground, his head rolled in front of Gates as her vision swam from the pain of her damaged ribs.

Suddenly the air crackled with electricity as the dead Spartan's headless body was lifted from the ground, his life force ebbed, then was slammed bodily into Castle's has he too was lifted up.

Two hundred yards away, the windows of the Museum of Art shattered along with every lamppost for three city blocks, flash frying every surveillance camera and electronic device for a hundred yards from the where the quickening was engulfing Richard Castle.

Lightning flashed as Castle screamed.

"The quickening!"

His entire body was engulfed in energy, Gates could barely see him.

"I see everything! I know...everything! I am ..._**everything**_!" He screamed before his words faded to painful moans as the power of the quickening crackled across his skin, then subsided as quickly as it came, dumping him unceremoniously to the ground in a heap.

As he slowly regained his senses, he saw Gates lying unconscious only a few feet away, the rise and fall of her chest the only sign that she was still breathing. He had no way to call for help from here as this entire part of the park was blacked out. And his cell phone was well and truly fried.

He gathered his strength, carefully picked her up, and slowly, tottered toward the nearest point of artificial light. Gates needed a hospital...now.


	6. Always

**Chapter Six  
****Always**

Kate Beckett sat with Alexis in a small cafe not far from Trafalgar Square. They had been in London for about a week, but she made a point of staking out good observation points on Nelson's tower early on. Their passports listed them as expatriate sisters from Montreal Quebec, and to that end she cut Alexis' hair to a neat bob, covered it with a wig that matched her auburn hair and fixed Alexis eyebrows with eyeliner pencil. Problem solved. She had wigs in several hair colors for them both. It was faster than hair dye and required less down time. News from New York was sketchy at best. Though the report of a decapitated man burned beyond recognition did fill her with sense of impending dread.

"He isn't coming is he?" Alexis whispered, her pale blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears. Her crestfallen expression tore Kate's heart in two, she reached across the table and took the girl's left hand in both of hers.

"Your father said to wait two weeks, Alexis, It's only been a few days. We can't give up hope yet." Kate replied, hoping if she said she said it enough she could convince herself.

* * *

**That same moment  
****Presbyterian Hospital**

Victoria Gates woke slowly from a drug induced slumber and very carefully assessed her situation with her eyes closed. Given the antiseptic smell and the constant beeping she figured she was in a hospital. She was breathing much easier than she remembered which was another check in the "win" column. When she finally opened her eyes, the last person she expected to see was looking back at her.

Richard Castle.

"How long was I out?" She groaned, remembering why she hated hospitals.

"About three days." Castle replied. "One of your broken ribs had punctured a lung and there was some internal bleeding, so they had to operate. They decided to keep you under an extra day to let you heal."

Gates nodded and was about to ask about her husband when he beat her to it.

"Your husband stepped out for a few minutes to get something to eat and answer a phone call from your mother, he should be back in a few minutes."

She was about to ask how she got here when he again beat her to it.

"I carried you out of the blackout zone and flagged down a patrol car, I told the officer who you were and he called an ambulance. I filed it as a mugging and gave the officer my statement. Your other colleagues were kind enough to dispose of Maddox, so I used his description for your assailant."

She frowned at having her second unasked question answered almost as soon as she could think it. He was about to do it again when she put up a finger to silence him.

"People may think that's cute when you and Detective Beckett do it, but it is starting to really irritate me."

Castle shrugged and replied. "It's a side effect of the prize. Not only do I have the accumulated knowledge and talents of all of the immortals, I can read the surface thoughts of anyone near me. I haven't quite figured everything out yet. The rest is kinda personal."

"I see."

"No, Victoria, you don't," Rick replied, feeling every one of his two thousand years, "you really don't."

Though she bristled at his use of her first name, in a tone she always associated with her father when she was twelve, she could tell something was bothering him. She had been his watcher for nearly a decade before she had made captain, and had studied his chronicle extensively before accepting the assignment. His first watcher had been a Shaolin priest by the name of Master Zhue, though some background on him had been done by a watcher who's name had been lost even from _their_ organization's extensive record keeping.

She knew everything about him that was available, including a mortal woman named Veronica whom he had loved deeply, but in the end had lived to watch grow old and die. It was why he had kept his dalliances with mortals brief until now.

She had known something was going on between him and Detective Beckett, almost from the beginning, she wasn't blind, but she had kept that knowledge to herself as it was easier to keep tabs on him this way. She'd learned that after she had kicked him out the summer after she had taken over. He had gone almost completely off the grid and she had kicked herself for her stupidity. Almost grateful when her lead detective had come back to the precinct and convinced him to return.

"Since you are so concerned, Victoria, I'm not immortal anymore, so I'm not worried about that." He said.

"Mr Castle, I would like to have my lead detective back, so I would really appreciate you letting her know the danger posed by Maddox has passed."

"I know, Victoria, I have one more small problem to take care of to ensure hers and my daughter's safety before I do that, get better soon." Rick said as he set the vase of orchids on the table beside her bed.

"Mr. Castle?" she asked with a dark tone of voice.

"I know, Victoria, captain or sir from now on." He replied with a jaunty wink as he swept from the room.

* * *

**Washington DC**

Senator William Bracken finished his campaign speech to wild applause. His supporters were enthusiastic for his eventual presidential run. All he had to deal with was the one remaining complication in his life. Eventually he was going to have to do something about Detective Beckett, preferably before he went public with his presidential bid.

After he publicly announced his bid, he would be watched too closely by not only the media but by his political opponents as well. People who care little if he actually sees jail time as long as he's knocked out of the race. His finances would be gone over with a fine tooth comb searching for any irregularities. His hidden assets would only remain hidden if he didn't access them, rendering it nearly impossible to hire the type of people he needed to kill her without it tracking back to him.

When he won, he would be far too busy being president, especially the first four years. A second term if he kept his political nose clean, he would be unable to touch her then, unless she did something really, really stupid, which she had been doing less and less of late. Their current deal being the the most recent example of how much more politically savvy she was becoming. Heaven only knows what she might find during that time that could tip the scales in her favor. Then she would descend upon him like the wrath of God.

He walked backstage into the VIP waiting area, but suddenly his guards were gone, the light suddenly faded to become diffused and indistinct as a familiar figure stepped out of the shadows as if they had parted to admit him.

"Senator Bracken, you have a much larger problem than Detective Beckett."

"Who might that be, Mr. Castle? You? The way I see it you have far too much to lose by getting any more involved than you already are. Starting with that lovely daughter of yours." Bracken replied.

"Not as much as you do, Senator, you see your former associate Cole Maddox kept very extensive records of his activities. Including both of the times you hired him to try to kill her, as well as a few other little "gifts" I can now use to to deal with you once and for all."

He began to slip back into the shadows, but couldn't help one last parting shot at the man.

"Thank you for your time, Senator it has been quite..._illuminating_. Leave Beckett alone, or you will regret it in ways you could not possibly imagine."

"We will see about that, Mr. Castle." Bracken replied, but he was talking to thin air. Little realizing what Richard Castle's true purpose was. The seed of his own doom had already been planted and their confrontation had taken place entirely within his own mind.

* * *

**Five Days Later  
****London, England  
****12:57 PM GMT**

Kate and Alexis had been waiting in Trafalgar square for two hours. They had packed their meager belongings either to go home, or to disappear. It all hinged on what happened in the next three minutes. Alexis had been beside herself pacing back and forth, so she sent her for coffee. Kate, in spite of her calm exterior was not faring much better. She had to keep her head though, another life depended on her to hold it together.

"Anybody here order Italian?" said a familiar voice behind them.

"Rick!" Kate cried out before launching herself into his arms. She had almost given up hope of ever seeing him alive again as she peppered his face with kisses before pressing her lips to his in a long, lingering searing kiss.

"Maddox?" Kate asked.

"I came, I saw, I kicked his ass." Rick replied, a little of his trademark smirk back on his face.

"Dad!" Alexis shouted, when she rounded the corner, dropping the two cups of coffee she had been carrying before she collided with the two of them, causing them both to "oomph" loudly. Rick pulled from Kate's embrace to pick Alexis up off of her feet and spin her around, as she giggled with joy at seeing the only father she had ever known alive and whole.

Everything would soon be right with the world.

**Three Days later**  
**Rockerfeller Center, NYC**

It was supposed to be the rally where he announced his bid for president. It was being televised not only nationwide but worldwide, his writer had prepared a speech about standing up to corruption and working for the little guy, but when William Bracken cleared his throat and began to speak, an entirely different speech spilled forth beyond his control.

"I, William Bracken confess to hiring Dick Coonan to murder Civil Rights Attorney Johanna Beckett in 1999, and again hiring him to kill her two associates and a document clerk in New York City later that same year. I am also responsible for the deaths of former police detectives John Raglan and Raymond McCallister, whom I had colluded with to cover up my crimes in 1999.

I hired a man named Hal Lockwood for the deed, and also hired him to murder Police Captain Roy Montgomery in May of 2011. On two occasions, first shortly after Montgomery's death and again just this past May, I hired a professional assassin to attempt to murder NYPD Detective Katherine Beckett, as well as to torture and murder Michael Smith to prevent the evidence of my crimes from coming to light. I accept full responsibility for my crimes and confess to them of my own free will. I am very sorry."

The video went viral within two days and was seen by nearly everyone in the world, sparking a federal investigation which would later lead to nearly a dozen indictments, not only for murder but for tax evasion, voter fraud, money laundering, and his involvement with a star chamber style kidnapping spree of several mobsters at the beginning of his political career.

In the end, it had been the IRS who had done most of the legwork looking at his finances, following the money had opened up everything else. William Bracken would be spending the rest of his life in prison. The ghost of Al Capone had struck again.

When Kate saw the video of his confession on national television, she curled herself up in his arms in their suite in the South of France and cried nearly all night. Her fourteen year long nightmare was finally over and her mother could truly rest in peace.

She was finally free.

* * *

The following day the three of them struck out into the French countryside, in nearly five hundred years most of the landmarks he remembered from back those days were long since gone, many obliterated only within the last hundred years during the first and second world wars, but somehow, inevitably he found his way through the hedgerows and forests to the spot he sought.

It was no longer just a copse of trees but a forest in it's own right. The slab of marble right where he'd dragged it with the horses covering the place where his beloved Veronica lay. Her body long since crumbled to dust. The words he had carved in the marble faint but still legible

_**Hic iacet  
Veronica  
Dilectus uxor  
Marcus Gaius Eggius  
natus MCDXXXV  
Obiit MD**_

He knelt at the flat marble slab sunk into the earth. It should have been buried under the grass centuries ago, he'd had no real expectation that they would actually find it when he dragged Kate and Alexis out here, only to get Kate out of the house, to pull her from her reverie as she finally allowed herself to truly grieve for her mother's death, now that her killer had been brought to justice.

Someone had gone to some pain to find this stone, clear it and preserve it, there had obviously been some sort of archeological dig out here, as he could clearly see the stone foundation of the house he had built for them with his own hands five hundred years ago not far away. He had no idea whom it may have been, but he was grateful as he laid the bouquet of lilies on the face of the stone.

He waved Kate over and took her hand as she knelt beside him, weaving their fingers together as Alexis had wandered down to look at the foundation of the house.

"She was a lot like you, Kate," he said quietly, "Kind, fierce, loyal, brave, and beautiful."

"But she died of old age." Kate whispered.

"Yes she did, even when her raven hair turned to gray, I loved her with all of my heart. It crushed me when she died, I wandered the earth aimlessly for over sixty years. I believed I would never meet another like her again...until I found you."

She turned to look in his eyes for the first time since they found this spot. She was blinking back tears of her own but she spoke not a word, so he continued.

"When we met, I felt like I had been given a gift from God, a mystery I would never solve, a second chance, a reason to fight for the prize, something worth fighting for. You were so much like her, and yet so completely different in so many glorious ways."

He pulled her into his embrace, felt her arms wrap themselves around the small of his back as he whispered into her hair.

"Now I can give you what I could never give her. A normal life, with the gathering behind me, I can grow old now and have children of my own. I have been given a gift to influence and reshape the world, but my life would be worth nothing without you in it."

Rick turned and face her while they were still on their knees and produced a small burgundy box from his jacket pocket.

"I have lived for over two thousand years and there is no one else I would rather share whatever years I have remaining with but you. Kate Beckett will you marry me?"

Kate finally burst into tears, "Yes...Rick...yes."

And for Marcus Gaius Eggius, there would never again be only one.

**The End.**


End file.
